Chapter 358: When a wall falls, everyone pushes it; when a drum is broken, everyone beats it!
Itosuke!
He is fifty-five years old this year, which is the prime of his life. Although he looks a little fat, he looks very kind and often has a smiling expression, but he is extremely ambitious and ruthless.
As one of the eight directors of Konami, he owns a very considerable portion of shares, which is enough for him to have a great deal of decision-making power over most matters of the company.
In fact, it stands to reason that as a shareholder, Itosuke should not contact a studio director like Masakazu Nakamura even if there is something to discuss.
Even though he is the uncrowned king with the most momentum and strength among the three great families.
The directors on the board usually go directly to Yue Jingzheng if they have any issues.
but!
Itosuke happened to meet with Nakamura Masakazu now.
and!
Among the remaining seven directors excluding Keizo Uesugi, there are many who, like him, have private connections with company executives.
The biggest reason for the current situation can be traced back to last year's Tokyo Game Festival.
At the last Tokyo Game Festival, Golden Wind defeated Konami's heavily invested "Tori-i" with the game "Sekiro".
Repeated mistakes and losses caused the board of directors to have serious doubts about Shangyue Jingzheng's ability and judgment.
And about this!
Jingzheng Shangyue naturally also has a very clear self-awareness——
Either cut off your arm to survive, or step down directly.
Therefore, in order to keep his position and also to be able to retire smoothly, Keimasa Joetsu had no choice but to make up his mind and use the method of "sacrificing pawns to save the king" to push out Koizumi, who was then one of the directors of Peak Studios, and Moritani, who was the managing director of the game affairs department.
At the same time, he took a tactic of retreating in order to advance. He saw that Konami was short of talent at the time and no one was capable of making important contributions. He threatened the board of directors with the threat of resignation and asked them to keep him in charge, thus keeping his position as president.
Indeed!
In this way, Keimasa Joetsu's position as president was secured.
But the people on the board of directors are not fools. Although they didn't say anything about what Shangyue Jingzheng did, they were all dissatisfied, and even disgusted.
Therefore, after this incident, the seven major shareholders of the board of directors took action and began to support their own spokespersons, waiting for the right time to get rid of Keizo Joetsu and take the helm of Konami.
And Nakamura was the spokesperson secretly supported by Itosuke.
Yes.
Although "Nocturne" turned the tide, Nakamura used his own ability to reproduce Sekiro and pulled Konami out of the shadow of the failure of "Tori".
But Konami has countless studios, and if it weren't for Ito's help, Nakamura would not have been able to stand out from the crowd so quickly and become one of the Big Three. He even surpassed the other two studios in such a short period of time, and was poised to become the "leader of the Big Three."
As for the fact that there are a total of eight directors on the board of directors, why are there only seven directors secretly supporting the president's successor?
That's naturally because Kamikoshi Keimasu has no one under his command.
The tactic of sacrificing pawns to save the king is certainly effective, but it is an act of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. If in this situation there are still people willing to work diligently and loyally for him, it only proves that the person who surrenders has some problems in his brain, and is afraid that he will not die fast enough or roll far enough.
It may not necessarily be the case that those who are righteous will have many supporters.
But it is an eternal truth that those who lose their way will have few supporters.
"……Um."
After listening to a series of reports from Nakamura Masakazu, Ito nodded slowly, pondered for a moment, and his mind raced.
In fact, he was unwilling to let Nakamura take this risk.
After all, he is not the only one who supports the spokesperson nowadays.
Although at present, the board group supporting Nakamura Masakazu includes him, and there are a total of three people, they are considered to be the interest group with a greater chance of winning.
But don’t forget that in addition to them, there are four other directors, divided into two groups, each supporting their own people.
They are Konami's Chief Financial Officer Sawajiri, who is supported by Ono and Uehara, and Konami's new Managing Director of Game Affairs Department Inoue, who is supported by Yoshida and Aoki.
Yes.
As Keimasa Joekoshi's tenure at Konami draws closer and closer, the various factions at Konami are becoming increasingly complicated.
For their own future interests and to gain greater voice within the group, each director of the board of directors has his or her own spokesperson.
Generally speaking, the next generation Konami president position will fall to three people.
Sawajiri, Inoue, and now Nakamura who came for help.
2-2-3 separatist formation.
Ito's forces now have a certain advantage, so he is unwilling to make a mistake at such a critical juncture.
After all, no one can guarantee whether "Yexia Island" will be successful.
But then think again!
etc……
Who says that the failure of "Yexia Island" is necessarily a bad thing?
Ito recalled the time when Keizo Joetsu sacrificed a pawn to save his king during the Sekiro incident.
Why couldn't he take this incident as an opportunity, push out Keijiro Kamikoshi as a pawn to take the blame, and allow Nakamura to quickly take the position?
After all, the release of the game was not decided by Masakazu Nakamura. Whether "Night Cloud Island" will be exhibited or not, the decision-making power is ultimately in the hands of you, Keimasa Kamikoshi.
What?
You said that now Johnson Keima has taken the initiative to cancel the exhibition arrangement of "Night Cloud Island" and actively avoided the battle with Golden Wind in order to protect himself and avoid another disastrous defeat?
There was a gleam in Ito's eyes.
You know.
Many times, the decisions made by the president cannot be made by him alone.
You are afraid of war and want to play it safe. Do you want to just take down "Yexia Island"?
Have you asked the board of directors?
Now, the Tokyo Game Festival is about to start. We have five games on display. Let me ask you -
…
"…Which game will be our main attraction this time? President Joetsu?"
Just during Konami’s meeting regarding the work arrangements for the Tokyo Game Festival!
The meeting is almost coming to an end!
Itosuke, one of the directors of the board of directors, suddenly attacked and pretended to question Kamikoshi Keimasa unintentionally.
Well arranged.
Among the five games, two are slightly larger and two are slightly smaller, and there are both new works and sequels.
Especially Nishikawa and Takasugi, who are two of the Big Three companies participating in the exhibition, one focuses on sports games and the other focuses on racing. The quality of their works this time is also quite good, with both innovation and inheritance. In addition, the timing is right and there are no too difficult opponents in the market, so I think the effect and response should be good.
but!
What's our main hit?
Ito's soul-searching question also reminded the other directors.
Everyone turned their inquiring eyes to Shangyue Jingzheng.
Yes!
Although the quality of the games produced by two of the three major companies is very good.
However, in terms of size, two games with prices fluctuating around $150 million are unlikely to be the main attraction.
Moreover, judging from the current market situation, shooting and action games are king.
Nowadays, we don’t have any action or shooting games, and we can’t even come up with a flagship product. Isn’t that a bit unreasonable?
You have to know that this is a game expo held right next to our home . As the host country's flagship company, we can't even come up with a flagship product for the exhibition?
“Ah, this…”
Upon hearing this, Shangyue Jingzheng's heart skipped a beat!
Whatever you fear will come to you!
Of course he knew that it was very inappropriate to participate in an exhibition without a main theme!
But he had no choice!
"Yexia Island" is now colliding with "Call of Duty" again. Both are shooting games. Under the attack of Golden Wind's honorable contribution, what can it do? !
It's nothing more than surrendering and forcibly moving "Night Cloud Island" behind "Call of Duty" to avoid being beaten to pieces again!
But now, the board of directors has brought this matter up for further inquiry!
For a moment, Kamikoshi Keima was speechless.
After all, the original board of directors would never get entangled in such detailed arrangements!
But ever since the last Tokyo Game Festival, the board of directors has disliked him, and this dislike has intensified with Silent Hill 2's failure again!
Now everyone on the board of directors has someone they want to support in their mind, and they wish he would die soon so that their own people can take charge of the company!
When the wall collapses, everyone pushes it down; when the drum is broken, everyone beats it.
Seeing that Shangyue Jing was stuck, on the other side, the female director Shangyuan also spoke up. It seemed unintentional, but it was actually sharp:
"Does President Joetsu have any concerns?"
As soon as these words came out!
The air in the entire conference room froze!
In an instant, Shangyue Jingzheng's face became extremely ugly!
Does he have any concerns?
nonsense!
If he had no concerns, how could he withdraw "Night Cloud Island" at such a critical moment when the production cost alone was 300 million!
And Uehara was obviously asking even though he knew the answer!
The atmosphere froze in an instant, and all seven directors looked at Shang Yue Jingzheng.
Dead silence.
And in this dead silence, Shangyue Jingzheng felt the breath of the end for the first time.
Since when did I become the target of public criticism, with my building on the verge of collapse?
Is it from the disappearance of Silent Hill 2?
Or was it from the disastrous failure of Torii?
Or did it start from before, when Silent Hill was crushed by Outlast?
Greed is like a snake swallowing an elephant.
Perhaps today, it was already destined when he made up his mind to kick out Golden Wind and monopolize the profits created by PT.
The great Konami!
Such a huge group!
The leader in Asia!
The Overlord of the East!
But now, he, the man at the helm, was forced into a dead end by a Chinese game company that started with only 500,000 yuan!
If I had known this earlier!
Why did he do that in the first place?
Until this moment!
It seemed that Kamikoshi Keima was truly regretting the change of mind he had back then!
But times have changed.
The mistakes made by greed cannot be erased by simply saying "regret".
Once upon a time, he not only had the opportunity to retire with honor, but he even had the possibility to join forces with Golden Wind to create a horror game myth unique to Asia, but he did not cherish it.
now.
Just as Gu Sheng said before.
Even if he was willing to give up fame and fortune and wait until retirement in peace, it would be harder than climbing to heaven.
This is the tremendous pressure from the board of directors.
This was a threat from the seven directors who united to bring him down.
Now, there is no one around him who is willing to take a bullet and risk his life for him.
He was like a small boat abandoned by the giant ship of Konami, and it was unknown whether he could reach the shore safely.
There was silence for nearly three minutes!
final!
Keizo Jyouetsu took a deep breath!
He replied slowly and weakly:
"I don't have any concerns. I just think that the preparations for Night Cloud Island are not sufficient. But if Directors Ito and Uehara are willing to have it on display at this exhibition, then I..."
However!
Before he can finish!
Ito frowned, secretly cursing Kazue Keimasa for daring to struggle to the death, and interrupted:
"President Joetsu, you are the one who runs the company, so you are the one who makes the decision on matters like this."
"We don't know much about the details of the company. Do you not know much about it either? Do you still need to rely on the opinions of outsiders like us?"
I'll force you to death!
damn it.
Izuku cursed in his heart.
You're really cunning enough to drag me down with you even when you're about to die.
As soon as these words came out!
Then, Shang Yue Jingzheng's whole body stiffened!
He opened his mouth but hesitated to speak!
Finally, his Adam's apple moved, and he seemed to have aged several times. He even spoke with some difficulty, and said in a voice that was almost inaudible and desperate:
"No... No..."
"I think the game "Yexia Island" has great potential, so I hereby apply to all directors to withdraw the decision to cancel "Yexia Island" from the exhibition,"
"Let 'Yexia Island' participate in the Tokyo Game Festival and make it the main work of our company's exhibition..."
“Maximize resource allocation.”
